June 7, DAY 27
Today we are at Laird Hot Springs at the provincial park dry camping. The park is nothing short of exceptional. Large sites nestle in tress such that you can’t see the neighbors. We walked to the hot springs where many decided to take a dip in the 104 degree section. It looked very inviting but bathing suits were mandatory so we passed on the dip. We saw a moose along the path and I managed to get a picture but might have to blow it up to see him? We also saw mama duck and her ducklings. During our travels to get here we saw a moose and her calf, stone sheep and their babies, a caribou and a black bear with two cubs but missed the picture because of traffic that chased them back into the woods. We lost our internet connection today. Something going on with my blackberry so can’t receive or send e-mail. Have to wait for the next wifi connection until I can get problem fixed. Try and get Verizon to solve of problem from here. They want me to call from a landline so we can trouble shoot the blackberry and didn’t seem to understand why I couldn’t do that? May have to wait until Alaska to get it fixed when I can use Sharon’s cell without paying and outrageous fee per minute roaming in another country.
June 8, DAY 28
Tobey got to see a moose in the campground during our first morning walk. I’m glad the moose had the common sense to walk away before Tobey could get to him. We are off to Watson Lake and along the way we saw several black bears and bison before we got to the area of the forest fires. Quite smoky and still smoldering. The smoke was so dense they had the traffic one way at a time with escorts. Upon arrival we went to the Sign Post Forest and placed our sign. We looked for others we knew but among the 66,000 sings we didn’t happen to locate any. Tobey wanted a Bear Bell like his buddy Gunner and we managed to locate one in the General Store for a mere $4.
June 9, DAY 29
We are off to Teslin today and along the way the only animals we saw were ones that were driving. Can’t believe the impatient people that pass just about anywhere. We were in a long stretch of dirt and loose gravel when two eighteen wheelers past at a high rate of speed and I received my first stone chips. I have about six chips in the paint on the front of the motorhome. We got to follow the water truck for a few miles and you can’t imagine the amount of mud collected by many of the rigs on our caravan. I didn’t do too badly other than a lot of dust. I rinsed the car off at the campground since it got the worse of it. We are in a nice campground on the edge of the river. I can toss pebbles into the river from my parking spot. The view is wonderful with the snow capped mountains in the background. We ate steaks on the grill tonight to start reducing our stock of meat for the crossing into Alaska in three more days.
June 10, DAY 30
It has been a month and we are still talking to each other. We are arriving into Whitehorse and can’t get to the campground before 1PM so decided to stop for lunch at this nice little restaurant Wolf’s Den. Once I was committed to enter it looked a little tight? Sharon walked ahead to see if we could even get around the building. The lady came out and said we could park in back but I wasn’t sure I could fit between the two buildings to get out into the back? We made it with inches to spare only to discover there was no parking lot just the driveway. So we pulled off the side and decide to stay since we got this far and worry about getting out after lunch. We had a very nice lunch and were only people in the place. Certainly wasn’t set up for big rigs but no warning signs. The restaurant was next to a campground as most are up here and the lady said to drive through the car wash area to get out and I shouldn’t have any trouble with the turns? As I was paying for lunch a man asked me how big my rig was. Turns out he was going to make a sign that said they could handle big rigs up to my size. I thought that was the last of it but, when we got to the car wash there was a motorhome that just started washing the rig and do you know how long it takes to wash a rig? Do you think he could stop long enough for us to pass through? We certainly didn’t get to the campground too early. The campground put on a very nice dinner for the group with roast beef as main course.
June 11, DAY 31
We went to visit SS Klondike stern paddle wheeler from the gold rush days. It was very interesting but the camera battery died so I couldn’t get pictures. We went to see the fish ladder, the longest wooden fish ladder but again no pictures could be taken. We did go back after lunch to take pictures. Stopped at the grocery store on the way back to camp and the city lost power. We couldn’t get checked out and had to wait for them to get emergency power up and running. At night we went to see the Fantastic Follies and just prior to intermission the power went out again. The power did not come back so they had to cancel the remainder of the show.
June 12, DAY 32
One of the 5th wheels had a flat tire because of a damaged wheel and one of the diesel pushers is having intermittent electrical problems but we managed to get the group on their way. However, yet another 5th wheel broke down just out of the campground. We radioed back to the tailgunner so he stopped to assist. Their diesel pickup had no power to get above 30 mph. He got them back to the campground and managed to get them connected with a Chevy dealer for repair. They were unfortunately left behind and this being Friday the dealer is not normally open Sat & Sun. The campground owner applied some leverage and they agreed to try and work on it on Sat. Seems the GM issues are chasing away the mechanics so they are short of help. Another day without much wildlife but we did see a large owl that unfortunately flew in front of the motorhome in front of us and I was eating feathers. We arrived at Destruction Bay and the campground had just gotten water to the campsites two days prior but the septic was still frozen so no dumping. The ground was frozen 7 feet down this year so many folks having septic system problems. The campground did put on a nice hamburger cookout with some wonderful salads. We went for a walk to see Kluane Lake and saw a porcupine that Tobey want to play with.
June 13, DAY 33
We arrived at TOK Alaska after one of the worst drives on the trip. Rigs and car were filthy so we had a rig washing party at the campground wash area. Everyone just lined up as they arrived and we all got out our brushes and washed them as they drove through. We had no problem at the border crossing this time and now all my computers and Blackberry are back in business but with the long hard day didn’t have much energy to get on to do anything. We did see a couple moose on the drive but couldn’t get pictures. Some folks saw a grizzly but we didn’t.
June 14, DAY 34
We got to Fairbanks and drove through rain most of the trip and so much for the wash jobs we did. I paid $3.05 per gallon for gas in Fairbanks. Saw a black bear and some trumpeter swans during the drive. We went to supper at the Salmon Bake at Pioneer Park and saw a vaudeville show after dinner.
June 15, DAY 35
Today we went on a river boat ride and stopped at Susan Butcher’s cabin that continues to be used as a dog training camp. She died of leukemia in 2006 after winning the Iditarod 4 times and successfully climbing Mt McKinley. We stopped at a Chena River fish camp to see how the Indians lived before and after meeting outsiders that brought modern tools and building techniques. Also had a chance to pet Reindeer and feel their velvet covered antlers. We saw the Alaska pipe line and went to Eldorado Gold Mine to pan for gold. We found enough gold to buy coffee and doughnuts. It was a full day and most folks quite tired.
June 16, DAY 36
We went to the ice museum to see the ice sculpture from last winter’s contest. I thought it was quite interesting except for going into the rooms to take pictures at a cool 20 degrees. Guess that was a bit better than the -30 degrees in which they were originally carved. Fairbanks has a high of 99 in the summer to a low of -62 in the winter. They don’t get much snow averaging 2 feet a year. They don’t get much wind in the winter so do not measure wind chill factors. We also went to the University of Alaska to see their museum. Our fried that broke down in Whitehorse caught up with us today. Turns out the garage did fix the truck on Saturday but called their house in Nevada not the campground to tell them. So they lost Sun as a travel day which was too bad. Tobey met a black labradoodle named Lucy and they had a good time. Tonight sundown is at 12:44 AM and sunup is at 3:07 AM. We were told the campground at Denali we were to use has a broken water main and is temporarily closed so re-planning is in process.
